LOS ANGELES:
Cinema legend Robert Redford, the tousled-haired heartthrob whose profession spanned six many years and who left an indelible mark as each actor and director, died early Tuesday morning at his dwelling in Utah. He was 89.
Redford handed away in his sleep at his Sundance residence within the Utah mountains, surrounded by household, in keeping with his publicist Cindi Berger, chief government of Rogers & Cowan PMK. A particular trigger was not disclosed.
“Robert Redford handed away on September 16, 2025, at his dwelling at Sundance within the mountains of Utah — the place he cherished, surrounded by these he cherished,” Berger mentioned in an announcement.
Born Charles Robert Redford Jr. on August 18, 1936, in Santa Monica, California, he was the son of an accountant. His mom died in 1955, a yr after he completed highschool.
Initially a proficient baseball participant, he gained a scholarship to the College of Colorado however misplaced it inside a yr on account of heavy ingesting. He frolicked travelling by Europe earlier than enrolling on the American Academy of Dramatic Arts in 1959.
After tv appearances, Redford broke by on the massive display screen with Jane Fonda in ‘Barefoot within the Park’ (1967). His profession took flight with ‘Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Child’ (1969), the place he performed the affable outlaw alongside Paul Newman. The movie grew to become an instantaneous basic, cementing Redford as Hollywood’s golden boy and establishing a lifelong friendship with Newman.
The pair reunited in ‘The Sting’ (1973), incomes Redford his solely Academy Award nomination as finest actor. By then, he was a family identify, showing in main movies together with ‘The Nice Gatsby’ (1974), ‘Three Days of the Condor’ (1975), and the acclaimed political thriller ‘All of the President’s Males’ (1976), the place he portrayed journalist Bob Woodward, chronicling the Watergate scandal.
Redford’s profession behind the digital camera proved equally important. His directorial debut, ‘Peculiar Folks’ (1980), gained 4 Oscars, together with finest director. He went on to direct ‘A River Runs Via It’ (1992), starring a younger Brad Pitt, and the Oscar-nominated ‘Quiz Present’ (1994).
In entrance of the digital camera, his performances continued to resonate. He starred in ‘The Pure’ (1984), the epic romance ‘Out of Africa’ (1985) reverse Meryl Streep, and many years later delivered a gripping solo flip in ‘All Is Misplaced’ (2013). He embraced various roles, from Marvel villain Alexander Pierce in ‘Captain America: The Winter Soldier’ (2014) to a cameo in ‘Avengers: Endgame’ (2019).
Redford’s affect prolonged far past Hollywood. In 1985 he launched the Sundance Movie Competition, a platform for unbiased filmmakers disenchanted with Hollywood’s commercialism. The pageant grew to become a springboard for skills like Jim Jarmusch, Quentin Tarantino and Steven Soderbergh. “Had I given in to dwelling within the (Hollywood) system, I do not know that I’d be right here proper now,” he mirrored in 2013.
An outspoken liberal and dedicated environmentalist, Redford campaigned tirelessly to protect Utah’s landscapes and pure assets. His political thrillers and pageant initiatives mirrored his perception in movie as a car for social change.
In 2007 he lamented the decline in political accountability: “In the event you take a look at ‘All The President’s Males’ and what it was saying in regards to the relationship between the media and authorities and the company powers, after which look the place we are actually, it is worse than it was.”
Redford was honoured repeatedly for his contributions. In 2002 he obtained an honorary Oscar for lifetime achievement, with Barbra Streisand calling him “the mental, the artist, the cowboy.” In 2019, French producer Alain Terzian awarded him France’s equal of an Oscar, saying: “Few careers have had such an affect on the historical past of cinema.”
Tributes poured in following information of his dying. “One of many lions has handed. Relaxation in peace my beautiful buddy,” Meryl Streep mentioned in an announcement. US President Donald Trump praised him as “nice,” remarking that “Redford had a collection of years the place there was no person higher.”
Redford’s private life was marked by each love and loss. Along with his first spouse, Lola Van Wagenen, he had 4 youngsters, one in all whom died in infancy. In 2009 he married German artist Sibylle Szaggars, his longtime associate.
By the point of his dying, Redford had turn into extra than simply an actor or director — he was a logo of American cinema itself: an outlaw, a dreamer, an unbiased spirit who formed the business on his personal phrases.
The “Sundance Child” might have ridden into legend many years in the past, however Robert Redford’s legacy, very similar to the mountains he cherished in Utah, stays towering and everlasting.
